Over 500 students graduate from Hillside Teachers' College

Over 500 students graduated from Hillside Teachers' College in Bulawayo yesterday.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony, Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Senator Tapela said it was important for teachers' colleges to expand education provision and ensure quality education programmes.
"The central issue facing educational policy makers and practitioners in the developing world is one of matching the imperatives for quantitative expansion of educational provision and promote quality learning for all children who enter the school environment," said Senator Tapela.
"This implies that teacher education institutions need to strive for content relevance, access to, and use of modern technologies to achieve the MDGs."
He said the quality of the products of an institution was often evidenced by the quality performance of the products.
"I am happy to note the excellent performance of the students graduating today.
The provision of equality cannot be ignored, as slightly more than 50 percent of the graduates are female, which is commendable, in line with the Government policy of gender equality. The other important aspect with regards to this class of 2010 is the incorporation of environmental training, which helps in the preservation of our natural resources," said Sen Tapela.
He urged the graduates to rise and take up the challenge of their profession.
Speaking at the same occasion, the UZ Academic Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Chipo Dyanda applauded the 92 percent pass rate, which was achieved by the college this year. 
"In spite of the challenges and obstacles the college is facing, I am happy to note that the concept of quality applies to the college, given the 92 percent pass rate.
"In perspective, I also note that the contribution to the quality of the overall programme at the college is strongly enhanced as indicated by the positive enrolment ratio of male to female students. 
A total 538 candidates are graduating and 241 are female," said Prof Dyanda.
She said the development was commend-able, given that the Unesco Covenant of Zimbabwe and the African Union (AU) had strongly recommended gender equity as a key indicator of national quality education.
"Our aim is to assist the teacher to achieve qualitative outcomes and outputs that will ultimately help the nation to attain the 21st century aspirations."These include short term goals such as MDGs and longer term challenges to do with wealth creation, employment, technological development and the new ICT based 'knowledge economy', among others," said Prof Dyanda.
She urged the authorities to strategise for the use of all available technologies to deliver the quality needed for education, saying the influence of ICT could not be ignored.
The college's principal, Mr Elkanah Dube, said the institution's emphasis was on future effectiveness in terms of relevance to the new paradigm of education."The college has adopted an approach focusing on improving the quality of some components of our curriculum. We regard teacher competence as the key factor for quality assurance in education.
"These graduates were a class of 538, 489 of whom passed, giving a pass rate of 90 percent and 39 passed with distinctions with one scoring two distinctions," said Mr Dube.
Ms Nokuthula Moyo walked away with $500 and a floating trophy for emerging the best overall student and producing high academic results.
The 39 graduates, who passed with distinctions also walked away with prizes and floating trophies for their outstanding performances.
The Zanu-PF Secretary for Education, Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Bulawayo Polytechnic principal Dr Temba Ndlovu, lecturers and parents graced the occasion.